“The Public Eye”

The first episode to air after the announcement that Dollhouse will be cancelled after this season. So it was with bittersweet regret that I sat down to watch the first hour of Dollhouse on tv. (so yes, the review of the second episode of the night will come later).

And it made me feel very sad because I dug the episode quite a bit and thought it was opening a whole new slew of ideas. Basing itself on the groundwork laid earlier with Senator Perrin and his investigations into the Dollhouse, the show unveils some of the depth of conspiracy that Rossum has delved into.

Madelyne (November) and Perrin meet and plan to take the Dollhouse out from the outside, invoking senate hearings and the like while DeWitt is left to handle the heat from Rossum as her doll is the one giving Perrin the face of the dollhouse.

The L.A. squad believes that Rossum will try to assassinate Madelyne, which of course Ballard isn’t a fan of so they decide to get her out before she gets killed. It’s a two prong attack. They imprint Carolilne as a call girl to sleep with the senator and get video to blackmail him while they send Ballard in to get his girl after discovering evidence that leads them to believe that Perrin’s wife is a doll from a different house.

Ballard goes in armed with a disruptor built by Topher.

When Perrin awakes, he brings Echo to his wife hoping they can figure out what’s going on and use Echo as evidence. They get too close when Ballard hits the disruptor and surprise surprise…it’s not Perrin’s wife who is the doll…it’s Perrin himself.

But why? It’s never spelled out completely but it is implied that they will sacrifice the L.A. Dollhouse, manipulate it so that it puts Perrin in power to further their agenda so they will obviously keep Rossum clean in the end.

It’s a very in depth conspiracy but certainly a fun one.

Ballard is captured and set to be killed after Perrin’s wife/handler takes his disruptor but Ballard is able to escape.

Perrin’s handler then finds Perrin and Caroline and is able to use the disruptor on them and bring them to Washington where they plan to rewipe Perrin.

And we meet Bennett. Played by Summer Glau. She is *surprise!* an autistic tech handler in Washington who plans to wipe Perrin and figure out what Echo is made of.

Does Summer Glau ever play the girl next door type of role??? Just curious.

Ballard is able to make it to Madelyne but she refuses to go with him despite him telling her everything. She claims that she’s a free woman and so if it’s a mistake what she is doing, then she’s free to make that mistake.

Overall it was a nice episode, action packed, thrililng, twisted, and everything a show should be….except cancelled.

B

Previous - 2.04

Next – 2.06